The Macroeconomics of Unemployment

The unemployment rate measures the percentage of people who do not have a job. Right now the unemployment rate is 5.7% that is a .04 increase from June unemployment rate of 5.3%. The 5.3 % unemployment was due to the economy adding 223,000 jobs that were considered the lowest in seven years. As long as hiring continues at these levels, the inflation rate remains low, and real GDP steady the course a boost in consumer spending and increases in profit margins should continue for businesses through 2015. Given this macroeconomic progress, I will continue to move forward with using an average percentage of unemployment rates in my forecast that will keep it negative with a minor increase over the next couple of years. As usual, an analysis of the

In the US, with a population of 320 million and a working wealth creating population of around 120 million, with 47 million on food stamps (an estimated increase of 27% since 2008), the unofficial estimated unemployment figure is 23 - 26%. The variation lies between including people as unemployed and ignoring those, ‘not in the labour force’, which is where the skewed figure of 4.7% comes from. Using the same semantics, Britain changed the term unemployed to job seekers in 1996, lowered unemployment at a stroke, yet left a nation of millions seeking work and by the same method, produced an amazingly near equal 4.9% of officially unemployed as America.

Unemployment refers to the numbers of people not working and can be measured by the claimant count and labour force survey. There are different types of unemployment and each of them requires different policies to overcome them.

Many people believe that their job defines their place in society and that productive, con-tinuous work is one of the elements needed for a happy life. Therefore, when a person becomes unemployed, he/she may lose hope, disrupt relationships, become depressed or sick, and even su-icidal. “Long term unemployment can often be financially, emotionally, and psychologically de-structive” (Krulick). In order to maintain a place in society, a person must be able to pay bills, support a family, and contribute to the community. Unemployment in the United States is a ma-jor social problem; better plans should be started by the government to help reduce the

In the United States, the unemployment rate measures the number of people actively searching for employment as a fraction of the labor force. While things seem to be looking up for the economy with lower gas prices and grocery bills are decreasing, unemployment still seems the plague the country. Only 63 percent of working-age Americans have a job or are actively looking for one -- the lowest share of the population participating in the labor force since 1978. (The population of working-age Americans here includes anyone over the age of 16, including those who have retired and students). Some of this is due to the fact that Baby Boomers retiring" HuffPost 's Mark Gongloff wrote. “Most of it has to do with the fact that the economy is still too weak to create enough jobs to draw people into the market. This is most clearly evident in the fact that younger people are leaving the labor force, too or never even entering it because they can 't find jobs” (Goyette, 2014).

In the modern American society, many well-educated people cannot get a good job, such as Jennifer, an American woman who lose her job and get a low-paid job but she gives up because the salary can’t afford the expenses of the whole family. According to the latest article on Market Watch website, Jeffry Bartash showed the data about the current percentage of unemployment and assumed that though the firms offer many opportunities to work, the unemployment rates still remain the same as before.

Unemployment mostly occurs when one has lost his/her job and spends quit time looking for a new job. “The U.S. unemployment rate was certainly too high in 1975, and most economists would agree that it is too high today.” ( Lucas Jr, P.257-263). Even though

Unfortunately the United States is one of the nation’s experiencing a large number of people just dropping out of the workforce causing this shrinkage. Back in 2000 our labor force members, which includes individuals actively looking for a job and those already employed was only at 72.7% (Luhby, 2015). Our unemployment rate is very deceiving because it looks like the numbers are declining when in reality people are just removing themselves from the labor market because they’ve become frustrated looking for work (Luhby, 2015). Another reason for the shrinkage is the cost of daycare being so expensive that some parents decide that it’s necessary for one parent to stay at home to care for the baby. Some employers have made it impossible for

Since the Great Recession, the economy has been "coming back" in fits and starts. Good news one month, bad news the next.

Unemployment is a simple term in itself but the concept is not as clear-cut as it may suggest. Unemployment is a key macroeconomic indicator used by policymakers to determine the economy’s performance relative to it’s productive potential (OECD, 2014). However, for it to be a reliable indicator there must be a commonly accepted definition to allow for comparison. The United Kingdom follows the internationally agreed definition of unemployment set by the International Labour Office (hereinafter: ILO) as “Anybody who is without work, available for work and seeking work. This includes those who have actively sought work in the last 4 weeks, available to start work in the next 2 weeks, or is waiting to start work in the next 2 weeks” (Geneva 1982, Cited by International Labour Office). The Labour Force Survey (hereinafter: LFS) is a sample survey covering a three-month period that is consistent with the ILO definition, this allows for cross-country comparisons. It is a direct assessment of unemployment is used to establish those that are employed, unemployed or economically inactive. Another means of unemployment measurement is the Claimant Count, it’s a by-product of administrational data collected by records of those on job seekers allowance. For the sake of this essay I will not be focusing on the Claimant count due to it underestimating unemployment figures- as seen in below in Figure 1.

The unemployment rate measures the rate at which the economy is operating at full capacity. It also has its roots embedded in the great depression when the rate reached about 25% (rbcpa.com). The unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed workers in the entire labor force (Bodie, et al, 2011). When people are unemployed the economy loses their contribution in terms of goods and services. The increase in the percentage of unemployed indicates the extent of economic hardship faced by the nation, therefore it is important for policymakers to know the number of unemployed workers in an economy in order to make better decisions in regards to the growth of the economy.

The unemployment rate in the United States of America is a topic that is often scrutinized and discussed among economists, politicians and fellow citizens. Frequently newscasters are advertising monthly unemployment rate, and I ask myself this question: Is the rate being published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) actually the true figure, or is the real number being misrepresented? In effort to answer this question, one has to understand the breakdown of the U.S. population as it relates to the actual labor force. One also has to comprehend who the government considers to be unemployed. I will be analyzing the current statistical numbers provided by the BLS, as well providing a detailed analysis of the government’s perspective as to what is deemed to be employed and unemployed.

An important data point in macroeconomics is the unemployment of a given country. Unemployment is a lot more complicated than one might initially think. A nation’s unemployed work force is comprised those individuals currently unemployed and looking for work. Obviously, the employed work force is made of workers that currently working. These two groups represent the labor force of a nation. The labor force does not include members of the population that are too young to work or have retired. More importantly, the labor force does not include the members of a nation that are no longer looking for work due to the inability to find a job. These are referred to as discouraged workers and are treated

This essay looks at how the level of unemployment (or employment) and labour force participation affect the economy as a whole.

“real” rate of return = we paid ($500,000/190) X 100 = $263,158 of shares of stock